


painfully lucky

by Voidromeda



Category: Mobsters (1991)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Het Relationship, Implied Relationships, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2020-05-13 17:35:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19255942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Voidromeda/pseuds/Voidromeda
Summary: Meyer likes to think he knows his friends well, even if he doesn't know how it is that Charlie is so damn magnetically attractive.





	painfully lucky

**Author's Note:**

> I think I just wrote fanfic for a movie no one has watched.

Meyer likes to pretend he understands his friends really well; likes to think he has a great understanding of Charlie, Benny, and Frankie. He has been with them for so long since Charlie’s first saving him, through thick and thin, and he thinks he understands them well enough. He doesn’t think he will ever understand the magnetic attraction Charlie exudes, however. Even with Benny being the one to attract all the dames, Charlie is the one who is normally luckier for it. He doesn’t have sex, but he knows of women who approach him and leave dazed, questions about Charlie’s satisfaction on the top of their tongues but he dismisses them almost uncaringly.

He likes to think he knows his friends really well, but Charlie will always be an enigma to him – painfully handsome, painfully charismatic, painfully alive. Everyone loves to hate him, or hate loving him, and his friends are the only exception to the two extremes. Meyer likes to think that he _gets_ Charlie in some sense – but then he comes up to Anna and smiles his million-dollar smile, as bright as diamonds, and he sees the way her breath lodges in her throat and hears her voice come out as an awed stutter. Charlie just smiles, nods at Meyer, at her, then leaves them be.

Anna’s expression falls, a horror taking over, and she begs him for help with her eyes – wide and afraid, uncertain, and Meyer takes her into his arms and makes love to her later that night. Charlie is none the wiser about what he does to Anna, to everyone else, and Meyer doesn’t know whether it is an act or just dreadful obliviousness.

The confusion only grows when he passes by Charlie’s hotel room one night only to hear Benny’s voice; his footsteps freeze, his heartbeat stopping for a second before it then begins to slam against his chest, the sound thunderous and roaring in his ears, when he hears soft moans of pleasure. He has to strain to hear them, but he hears them – words of worship slipping from Benny’s tongue (“you’re so beautiful, Charlie, why the fuck did God make you a man?” “If I was a woman, I wouldn’t be who I am today”), Charlie’s soft voice masking his ego (“I thought you liked being in control, Benny.”), and the unmistakable sounds of a bed creak and drag against the floor. He rushes off before either of them realize he is listening to them, and he buries himself in Anna’s arms.

“What’s wrong, Meyer?” Anna asks gently when the only thing he does is hide his face in her neck, trying to find comfort in her arms, and he finds himself tongue-tied – he chokes on the answer that wants to come out, and she doesn’t push. She merely cradles him in her arms and they fall asleep in each other’s embrace like this – Anna in her nightgown, and Meyer still uncomfortably in his suit.

He has to try, hard, to look Charlie in the eyes next day and ignore some of the hickeys just barely hidden by his suit. He tries not to focus on them too much, but when he looks back up his blood turns to ice from the knowing, inquisitive look in Charlie’s eyes. He always finds those eyes beautiful – now, he finds an accusation in them which sparks the fear of destruction in his heart.

“You look spooked, Meyer.” he says conversationally while he swaggers on closer, hands in his pockets and his eyebrows rising up high, “did something happen, or did you just have a bad dream, eh? You always were a squeamish one when it came to your nightmares, but nothing else.” he stands directly in front of him now, his smile lazy and his eyes half-lidded, and Meyer just smiles. Or, so he tries. Charlie leans in closer. “Or did you hear something ya shouldn’t’ve?” he whispers into his ear, his breath hot and heavy, and Meyer tenses.

“I didn’t, Charlie,” he says smoothly, “you don’t have to worry. I just really did have a bad dream, you know me.” he throws his arms out in a big shrug, his head tilting to the left and his smile not reaching his eyes, but Charlie seems satisfied with his answer. “You don’t have to worry.”

There is a bit of silence as Charlie just stands before him, eyeing him up and down and only briefly looking over his shoulder when Frankie and Benny pass by behind him. Meyer swallows the lump in his throat down when Charlie brings one hand out of his pocket and cups his cheek, his thumb tracing over his upper lip, and he leans in close enough that their breaths mingle together. “You and Anna look beautiful together, Meyer,” Charlie says lowly, smoothly, his voice deepening with _something_ , and Meyer’s heart is running a thousand miles per minute, “ _you_ were always so gorgeous, you almost don’t look like you belong here.”

He kisses Meyer’s cheek then backs away, pats his chest, and leaves him there to think over what he means. It leaves time for him to wonder how it is that Charlie is always so magnetically attractive that he can’t even be mad that he catches Anna’s eye, that he presses into his personal space and demands discomfort from him, that he sleeps with men and women alike.

Meyer tries not to think about the fact that Benny quits his playboy ways after that night with Charlie, even as their frontman continues to satisfy women with agendas and lets Frankie worship him as well. He tries not to think about how Charlie’s skin will feel underneath his fingertips. He tries not to.

[He is getting married now, after all.]


End file.
